Editorial: Republican primary endorsement for DA

Some things are personal as well as political. The Republican primary race for Harris County district attorney appears to be one. It may be the hardest-fought - and it certainly is the most personal - contest on the GOP ballot in this 2012 season. The why and wherefore of this deserves some elaboration.

The two combatants, and we use the term advisedly, are the incumbent, District Attorney Pat Lykos, and her challenger, former prosecutor and criminal court judge Mike Anderson. We recommend a vote for Pat Lykos.

While both wear the Republican label proudly and genuinely, their views about the current state, and future direction, of the DA's office, the nexus of criminal justice in Harris County, are as far apart as, well, Orange is from El Paso. The tone of a recent joint screening visit with the Houston Chronicle editorial board was testy and confrontational. Worthy of a well-argued courtroom trial, if we may say.

Clearly, this is personal as well as professional between these two experienced, well-qualified candidates whose careers have doubtless intersected many times over three decades in the small, often gossip-driven world that is the Harris County criminal courthouse.

Lykos, who started out as a Houston police officer, worked her way through law school and was for many years a judge on a criminal district court bench. Anderson started in the district attorney's office out of law school. In his 17 years with the DA, he handled crimes from misdemeanors to capital murder, eventually working his way up to Special Crimes prosecutor in the Major Offenders Division. In 1998, he was elected to the 262nd District Criminal Court bench, and in 2009 was elected administrative judge by his fellow criminal district court judges.

In 2008, Lykos campaigned successfully as a reformer who would clean up the shambles left by disgraced former DA Chuck Rosenthal, whose tenure was marked by unacceptable ethical and behavioral lapses. That atmosphere has changed. Lykos is rightly proud of her accomplishments.

Anderson, who has the support of several law enforcement organizations, as well as dissatisfied attorneys in the DA's office, charges that there is more of a "good ol' boy" system in operation under Lykos than under Rosenthal. He asserts further that Lykos, who never served as a prosecutor, lacks the experience necessary to lead a department whose reason for being is the prosecution of crime.

Ground Zero of disagreement between the two candidates appears to be Lykos' DIVERT program for first-time DWI offenders. She says the program, which 2,400 people have completed, "puts our young people on the right pathway of life," and has a recidivism rate of only 1.2 percent.

Anderson argues that DIVERT does not reach true problem drinkers and says it needlessly duplicates an existing program called pre-trial diversion. He also favors deferred adjudication for DWI offenders, which would have to be enacted by the Texas Legislature.

A second major disagreement stems from Lykos' decision not to prosecute drug offenders for possession of trace amounts (one-hundredth of a gram or less) of crack cocaine. She says the decision was made because her attorneys had told her such cases are often difficult if not impossible to prosecute. She says that her policy resulted in a 40 percent increase in the value of drugs seized by HPD last year. Anderson counters that failing to prosecute these cases leaves more criminals on the street to commit thefts and burglaries, while denying law enforcement a valuable source of information to lead them to drug dealers and others farther up the chain.

When it comes to qualifications for office, this race is a virtual dead heat. But two factors tip our endorsement call definitively to Pat Lykos. She's an outsider, and following the Rosenthal debacle, that's what the DA's office needs. Over the past three and a half years she's made good on her promise to begin reforming the culture of an important department that had descended to the level of "Animal House." We see no good reason to change course. While recognizing Mike Anderson's strengths, we commend Pat Lykos to voters in the GOP primary.